Matrix Glitch wrote:
What about bi and pan etc? Maybe they swung one way, but were persuaded to swing the other way because they weren't dead set on same sex.
Unless perhaps they were actually bisexual. Maybe more people are actually bisexual than is realized. Or the person themselves realize.
Compared to gay and straight; bisexual is a little more complex. It is a category with a significant amount of variation. Some bisexuals have absolutely no preference, whereas others may prefer one sex over the other but still like both sexes. It is a spectrum. Further, fluctuation may occur. Whilst these aren't official terms, I like to use the terms fixed / static bisexual and fluid bisexual. Let's say for example we have a group of people and we want to make a chart. Person A has no preference. Person B has a preference and this preference remains consistent throughout the months. Whereas, Person C has a preference but it is inconsistent and changes over time. If we were to map out Person C's preferences we might find a repeating pattern. Person A and Person B are both static, whereas Person C is not static.
I've heard people refer to this as a Bisexual cycle (or a bicycle if you will
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
). There are extreme cases where someone might have a strong preference towards the opposite or same sex but occasionally experience attraction to the other. I generally refer to this as technical bisexuality. When someone technically falls into the parameters of being bisexual, but they may prefer to identify as gay or straight. A person may feel attraction so infrequently to their less preferred sex that they might find pursing a relationship with that sex to be impractical.
There is a misconception that a bisexual becomes straight when they date someone of the opposite sex, or gay when they date someone of the same sex. However, this is incorrect. If a man marries a woman, his attraction to other women does not go away. Same principal. If Person A gets married to someone of the opposite sex, they are still equally attracted to the same sex but will not act on this as they have chosen to be monogamous (unless it's an open marriage). This poses the same level of difficulty as not cheating on their partner with someone of the opposite sex.
Bisexuals often end up with an opposite sex partner not out of persuasion or picking a side, but rather it is a matter of probability. There are more prospective partners of the opposite sex so they are more likely to end up in such a relationship. However, they may not as there's a chance they might settle down with a same sex partner. This does not make them gay as their attraction to the opposite sex does not disappear. Bisexual is not half gay / half straight, rather it fits into its own category. A bisexual person may consciously choose to ignore / not act on crushes on people of the same sex and only act on feelings towards the opposite sex, but they cannot stop having such feelings in the first place.
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I like to use ice cream flavours as an analogy to explain the difference between pansexual and bisexual. Some people like chocolate and vanilla but for different reasons. They have a different flavour from each other but some people enjoy both flavours. However, others might like them both, but the flavour simply isn't a factor - it's about the texture instead. Let's say Person D finds women attractive for various reasons and they also find men attractive for various (but different) reasons. In comparison, Person E finds both genders attractive but gender simply isn't a factor, to them it's about as relevant as a person's shoe size (unless you're into that). At least, that's my understanding.
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25. Near the spectrum but not on it.